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South of the Valley

Yosemite National Park is quite large, covering an area of approximately 1,200 square miles. Most visitors to Yosemite, however, never venture out of the valley, or if they do, never go far. Unfortunately, due to the very limited time I had for this spur-of-the-moment trip, this applied to myself as well.

When I first processed this SceneSet, I entitled this image "South of the Valley", and I've maintained that name for historical reasons. But I subsequently discovered that most of what you're seeing here is actually east of the main part of Yosemite Valley, not south of it. The termination of Yosemite Valley can be seen at far left, beyond Half Dome. In the center is much of Little Yosemite Valley, including the monolith known as Liberty Cap, and next to it, Nevada Fall. The tall dome-like peak in the middle distance center-right is Mount Starr King. To its left, on the horizon, is the Clark Range, named for Galen Clark, an early explorer of the Sierras who served as guardian of Yosemite National Park for 24 years. I believe the summits visible here are, from left to right: Mount Clark, Gray Peak and Red Peak. Merced Peak caps off the Clark Range, but in this view is hidden behind Starr King.